The luminaries (Sun and Moon) form a grand cross with Pluto and Mars today, creating the kind of tension that pushes situations to the breaking point. And it gives an edge to this ordinarily peaceful full Moon in Libra, being provoked on all sides by planets in the three other initiating cardinal signs. When such fierce pulling is going on, like in Tug-of-War, there's a chance of being hurled to the other side. Mars in Cancer means emotions swirl into tsunamis, and the Sun is primed for a forward charge. Those impulses are tempered by what we're seeing reflected back to us by others under this partnership Moon. And with the probing planet Pluto wedged in there, any full Moon revelations that happen now are deep, total and based in real reality, not the made-up kind.

The presence of Pluto intensifies global power struggles, like the one going on in Tibet. Some young Tibetan exiles are rejecting the Middle Way, a moderate path, and calling for independence from China. Described in a NY Times article as full of "energy and fire," they're expressing the raw courage of adolescence (Aries). The Dalai Lama sees the stark reality, and wants to avoid drawing out the hidden arsenals of a superpower (Pluto in Capricorn). He wants to protect the remaining vestiges of culture and lives of those still living "at home." (Mars in Cancer) “I’m always telling them: ‘You are fighting for our rights. But today we are almost a nation dying. This moment important is survival. Practical solution is necessary.’” Tibet's Prime Minister Samdhong Rinpoche responded to these "dreamers" in a similarly sober way, saying, "I never live in dreams. I live in reality, and in the present.” Today the Dalai Lama made what's being called an "extraordinary offer" to meet with Chinese officials in Beijing. It's a brave and hopeful move on a Libra Full Moon to ask for negotiations that would be fair to both sides.

The planets in earth signs (Jupiter, Pluto, Saturn) are guiding us to discover what's real, and what realities are possible. At the same time, Neptune and Uranus in cosmic thinking signs keep dangling the carrot of new possibilities. The full Moon has the potential to harmonize the dreamer and the realist within. That way, the first steps into this unknown future are taken on solid ground.